( A/N - Here is the first chapter! Again, no character is mine. JK owns all copyright. This is during the War of Hogwarts. Enjoy!)

She could see it in the sky, the evidence that war is going on. Sitting on the branch of a tree while waiting for everything to be over, Pansy contemplated the things that she did and did not do. It was dark, but it wasn't the kind of dark you'd see on a peaceful night. There were traces of color, echoes of light from spells that had been cast here and there, like ghosts of fireworks in the wee hours after New Year's Eve. The atmosphere was thick with tension and something else… death. She could barely remember what she thought before speaking out, but still, she did. She told everyone she wanted Potter handed over to the Dark Lord, and in all honestly, she did. They were such fools, brave and courageous, but fools nonetheless. She may be a coward but it wasn't out of selfishness or spite. She wanted to be saved, and she wanted many people to be saved with her. Unlike Crabbe, Goyle, Millicent, or even Blaise, it did not amuse her to have the Carrows at school with them. Their presence tasted like blood in her mouth, and their constant tormenting of the student body cut at her like a knife.

But she went with the show like the actress that she was. After all, it was what she was supposed to do. And even then she wanted to save herself and it was the only way to do it. But it did not keep her from doing certain things. Sometimes she would brew cough potions and healing salves, because she knew that the Carrows were hoarding Madam Pomfrey's supply. She would secretly place them inside the potions cabinet during the night, stealthy as a thief, except instead of taking, she's giving. Some nights she would just stand there in the middle aisle between the rows of beds, silent as a shadow, walking from one bed to the other, making sure that the recent victims were alive. In the faint moonlight streaming through the windows she could see their injuries and the bandage pads that covered them, and it made her heart ache so much, especially for the little ones, the first years and second years that had the misfortune to end up there.

When she was eight years old, she loved playing in their mansion's basement even when her mama disapproved. One day, she tripped over some things while pretending to dance ballet like she'd seen the Patil twins do, but she managed to stand and walk like nothing happened. It was then that her nanny, hearing the racket that her tripping prodiced, opened the basement door and ran down the stairs in apparent haste. She was about to assure her that nothing was wrong but her nanny's face transformed into a look of unadulterated horror as she gave a blood-curdling shriek while pointing at her legs. Pansy looked down and saw that her white stockings had turned red with blood, and that it was spreading outwards like it had its own will. She was too stunned to say a word, but she crumpled to the ground because she finally felt what her brain had not registered the moment it happened: intense and blinding pain.

It was like that with the little ones. She never really thought it would break her heart to see children abused like that until she saw it happening right before her eyes, like her eight year old self did not feel the hurt of her wound until she saw blood.

In her mind's eye, letting the Dark Lord plunder the castle with his army would put the people she fought to keep safe in danger, people who were barely old enough to fight a war, and before she let that happen, she would have to speak up, no matter what it would cost her.

It did not do her any good and she was sent into the dungeons with the rest of her house. She flailed her arms and hit anyone who would go near her; she screamed and screamed and screamed. But they mistook it for wanting to join Voldemort's army, rather than being indignant because they were about to open the school gates for the slaughter of all its students. And so she was stupefied and was carried to the deepest part of the castle like a rag doll. When Filch left, it did not take long for the dungeon gates to break, and all the students that had been trapped had forced their way out in such reckless manners that you'd think it impossible that they were ever educated. Pansy ached in places where she had been trampled on. Clearly her status means nothing anymore, if it even meant anything at all.

It was Daphne who hauled her up from the floor, Astoria openly crying behind her. They were the last ones to leave, and when they got to the upper landing the corridor was deserted. They could hear the sounds of battle from where they were standing, and it shook them out of their daze. This was a free for all now, and anyone with a wand is an enemy.

"Wands out." Pansy commanded.

Astoria had stopped crying and had managed to put on a brave look on her face. Daphne was terrifyingly beautiful with her features arranged in determination. Pansy had no idea how she looked and was too nervous to even care. The three of them made their way out step after step after step, keeping to the shadows or behind broken walls when they hear voices or pounding feet.

It did not take long before they had to be tangled up in all the fighting.

People were everywhere. All of them engaged in duels, battles of their own. There were bodies in the ground, some groaning, some trying to stand up, others alive but passed out, and some who were obviously dead. Pansy didn't know where to look or what to do, and absently she was searching the sea of strangers for a familiar face. There were a lot, but she doubts they would be friendly to her and her company. She could see Neville Longbottom with sweat trickling down his face, there was even Oliver Wood who is now looked like an actual man, fighting someone in a vivid green robe. Pansy pulled Daphne and Astoria to the wall as they made their way, all the while praying with all her might to anyone who's listening that no one makes a target out of them.

They were nearing the great hall when Astoria swivelled her head to the side and gave a startling cry. There, beneath one of the tumbled marble columns was Millicent Bulstrode, or what remained of her. Her limbs were missing, her torso was crushed and she was lying in a pool of her own blood. Daphne ran for her but Pansy restrained her arm. It was too late now, Millie was staring at the ceiling with dead eyes, and there was nothing anyone could do to save her.

A red bolt of light whistled past Astoria's ear and she ducked aside while uttering a spell of her own. Two figures were heading their way and she could barely recognize who they were in the distance. Another spell was sent towards them but Daphne blocked it easily with a nonverbal. Pansy was frozen, hesitant. She wanted to know who they were before she fired, because she wasn't sure whose side she was playing in now. But they did not have to come closer for her to find out.

Out of nowhere, Luna Lovegood appeared. Her blue eyes shining like a beacon in the semi-darkness. "Petrificus Totalus!" she roared over the chaos. Faintly, Pansy remembered Luna in her lion hat, and she thought that maybe the girl should have been a Gryffindor after all. One of the two men toppled over while Luna braced for her next spell, but the other one was quicker. He was (based on the timbre of his voice, Pansy deducted that he was a he) uttering the beginnings of a killing curse when Pansy acted without second thought. "Impedimenta!" The man jerked forward like he'd been hit by an invisible force from the back and fell face-first. Daphne stepped in front of her to finish him off with an immobilizing spell. From across the room, Pansy met Luna's eyes briefly, and she thought it crinkled in acknowledgement before it looked somewhere else as more Death Eaters descended upon them.

Their uniforms were covered with dust. The Slytherin green that should have saved them was now camouflaged and unrecognizable under dirt and grime. Pansy didn't mind, and beside her it was obvious that Daphne didn't too. They fought side by side like only best friends can do: in complete synchrony with whatever each and the other does. Astoria was thrown on the other side of the room beside Luna Lovegood, and once in a while Pansy's eyes would skim towards where they were to make sure that they were alive and fighting. Meanwhile, her brain-to-mouth filter had completely broken down as she fought while uttering only the very first spells that came into her mind. Already she was responsible for lighting four Death Eaters on fire.

"Incendio! INCENDIO!" Pansy was shrieking almost mindlessly.

"Lovegood, why are you putting out the fire?!" Daphne asked in apparent exasperation as Luna uttered spell after spell that put out the fire Pansy's mindless state had caused.

"The reek is intolerable!" Luna answered, her voice muffled, like she somehow had her hands over her mouth. But her voice, despite the racket that is going on around them, was as calm and distant as an undisturbed pond. It was quite frankly, a little bit creepy and comforting all at once.

There was almost a kind of camaraderie between the girls that no one would have ever thought possible as they fought the Death Eaters that came at them. After a while, the noise subsided as the last of them fell to the ground with a thunk, and that was when the acrid smell of burning flesh made its way through Pansy's nose. There was no more distraction to mask it now, and Pansy fought the urge to gag. Instead, she closed her eyes and sagged against the nearest wall. She was conscious of the heavy breathing of the other three people around her, their magical exertions leaving them fatigued. When she decided that she has gathered enough strength, she opened her mouth to say something sarcastic with the hopes of putting them all at ease, but before a word escaped her mouth she was interrupted by Luna Lovegood's voice, sounding ragged and frantic as she yelled, "Oliver, no!"

Her eyes flew open as she heard Daphne scream, her hand flying to her shoulder that was cut open and bleeding. Astoria left Luna's side and caught Daphne mid-fall. Luna and Oliver Wood were having a discussion of sorts, and Pansy knew there was no other time to act except now.

"Go, go, go." She urged the sisters forward as she brought up the rear, and soon they were running like hell was on their heels, not once that whole time did any of them look back.

( A/N - Please review for me to know if I should keep going! n_n )